Break Free 2016 in Albany This Saturday, May 14thThere is still time to join with many others from Western Mass who are heading to the Break Free from Fossil Fuels Mass Action to Stop the Bomb Trains in Albany on Saturday, May 14th. If you need or can offer a ride please contactDavid Arbeitman from Climate Action Now ( up until noon on Friday, May 13th) and he will assist you. Break Free is a series of 23 mass actions demanding to Keep Fossil Fuels In The Ground in 12 countries on 6 continents. Actions have already started all across the globe. If you are still deciding whether or not to go please read these words from Jay O’Hara of the Climate Disobedience Center, one of the organizers of the Albany action.

Our motivation to take action for climate and environmental justice can spring from our anger, sadness, love and so many other emotions, even fear. But in our coming together, living into the crisis with our bodies in a way that confronts the urgency and magnitude of this situation, we find an opportunity for true hope. With so many lives at stake at Ezra Prentice homes and in the South End of Albany, all along the rail corridor blast zone, in the shale fields of North Dakota where this fracked oil is loaded into the trains, and across the globe as climate catastrophe unfolds – this is a serious endeavor. I’m convinced that this sort of action works because we lead by example. And when we lead boldly by example, people are moved to join us.

On the eve of the big U.N summit in Paris, the climate movement is taking to the streets. With climate change in the global spotlight, this is our chance to make the talks work for our movement. This is our chance to set the agenda for ambition.

Our message: keep fossil fuels in the ground and finance a just transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050.

ATHOL DEtAILS:

Residents and Friends of the the North Quabbin Region are invited to our Global Climate March from 1:00 – 2:00 PM, Sunday, November 29th
We invite folks Join the March – bring signs and banners; read a short message or sing a song; bring hand drums, string or wind instruments; or just come to witness and support the March.
Many of the major environmental and Climate Justice Action groups in the North Quabbin Region have joined as Sponsors of the March, including: Earthlands, North Quabbin Energy; NQ Pipeline Action, Mt. Grace Conservation Land Trust, Sacred Earth Network, Ritual Expressions, N.Q. Women in Black, Petersham Energy Committee, Ritual Expressions, Common Grow, and many others.
Speakers and musicians are getting lined-up.
After the March, all are invited to the Annual Earthlands Thanksgiving Potluck & Gathering at 39 Glasheen Road, Petersham, MA 01366 for good food, amazing music, stimulating conversation, and inspiring community.

STOP THE Tennessee Gas Pipeline

THE GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT TO STOP THE Tennessee Gas Pipeline through Franklin and Berkshire counties IS GROWING BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS! PLEASE JOIN US THIS SATURDAY, MARCH 15TH AT 3 PM AT COOP POWER (15 A WEST STREET, WEST HATFIELD) AS WE CONTINUE TO JOIN TOGETHER, GET ORGANIZED, AND STRATEGIZE! LET US KNOW IF YOU WANT TO GET INVOLVED.

Also, on Saturday, March 9th, over 100 people met in Cummington to voice their opposite to this proposed pipeline going thru their back yards.

We’re also establishing a working relationship with stopthepipeline.org from New York as they have been fighting this fight for a while now and see us as nature allies because if the pipeline can’t come thru Massachusetts, then it will be less viable in New York.

There is a very positive vibe of this being a unify issue to bridge local with national to global issues like Keystone XL.

It is absolutely essential that you reject the recently submitted EIS for the Keystone XL Pipeline. The construction process itself poses threats to the environment, but even worse is the potential for leaks and spillage of the extremely toxic tar sands oil. Worst of all, however, is that the tar sands oil needs to stay in the ground. If it is extracted and burned, the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere will significantly increase the amount of climate instability that the USA (along with the rest of the world) is experiencing. The extreme droughts (and resulting wildfires) in the West; the flooding along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and the uncharacteristically severe winter storms that have hit the Midwest, South, and Northeast can all be traced to an unprecedented warming of the oceans over which our weather forms. The question that you have in your hands is not whether or not the Earth will survive–it will–but whether or not the Earth will continue to be as hospitable a place for humans as it has been for the past thousands of years. The climate over that time has experienced some natural variation, but current levels of greenhouse gases are pushing it well beyond its historical range of variability. In other words, conditions now are like they have never been before. It is reckless and irresponsible to approve construction of a project that facilitates the release of more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when all the scientific evidence shows that it is imperiling the continued hospitality of the planet for human (and other) life as we know it. Throughout your adult life, you have often been in a position to save human lives–as a soldier in Vietnam, as a veteran opposing the war in Vietnam, as an elected official in Massachusetts and in the United States Senate, and now as US Secretary of State negotiating an end to conflicts in the Mideast and elsewhere. The decision over the XL Pipeline is another situation in which human lives have been placed in your hands; you are in a position to make a significant difference in the lives of billions of people now and in the future. Please act responsibly and reject the Keystone XL Pipeline. It might be the most important thing you have done in your long and distinguished career in public service.